Day 43: Chapel

[constellates.livejournal.com]

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn, someone had gotten to it before her. And who was the voice at the end there? It was like she'd been allowed access to some kind of strange mystery that she could not understand, one that had been going on for a long time before she had arrived and would be going on for quite a while in the future, after she was gone. Had these strange sets of circumstances been bugs in this place's programming? Who could say?

The morning's intercom greeting was strange, as well. Federal training whatsit? It didn't seem like this happened very often, from the sound of it, but so much had happened since the last day she remembered that the former Demon Palace Emperor was ready to take pretty much anything at face value.

The room she woke up in was still empty. Wondering where to stick the half-cracked bat that she'd picked up last night, she shoved it under the mattress hastily when she heard footsteps in the hall.

The stupid nurse was the same as ever, though. Some things never changed. "Ahh, good morning, Eileen. It's so nice to see you awake."

Alkaid rolled her eyes at the nurse's chuckle, and shook her head. She didn't care that the NPC thought it was nice, she just wanted to see the rest of the institute already.. see what had changed! "Yeah, it's fantastic. Whatever! Just take me where I'm going and be done with it!"

It was just then that she realized that she was not wanting to devour the flesh of the nurse in front of her. And that the pain on her arm had kind of abated - she couldn't see through the thick bandages they had covered her arm with, but she wondered if her skin was still rotting off like a zombie. Had they somehow cured her infection overnight? Or was the nurse not human, like Alkaid had always thought?

There was only one thing for it: she had to go somewhere else.

"Chapel, sun room, or cafeteria, then?"

"Does it look like I care?"

The nurse sighed, then started walking Alkaid down the hall, up the stairs, and down another hall to the chapel. No one here yet, huh? That was weird. She couldn't imagine that no one else'd show up, but who could say? This place had been turned on its ass.

The chapel was empty so far, and kind of nondescript. She shooed the nurse away, and stood in the middle of the space between the pews, standing akimbo. What would happen today? What would she learn about herself... her situation? How long had she been sleeping? Was she really still going freaking undead, or had that been somehow taken care of?

All this would come to light really soon. She hoped. Geez, too many mysteries!!

[unwittingly awaiting Haseo]

Comments

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

The former cyborg's lip momentarily flickered at the woman's threat.

"A mistake?!" Sechs barked, no longer keeping his tone down but not to the point of shouting -- yet.

Giving out a hoarse growl, Sechs' harsh grip upon the woman's shoulder intensified. "The way Armand was slashed up against that tree didn't look at all like a 'mistake'!" He hissed, "and you don't look one bit regretful over it! 'Mistake' my ASS!"

Slouching forward, the Replica abruptly wrenched his sharp hold on the woman, roughly forcing her back against the seat and closer towards his scowling face. His intense yellow eyes virtually shot daggers at her.

"I could care less for that sort of bullshit! You got me?!" The Replica growled as he gave the woman's shoulder another painful squeeze. "I also don't like the idea of someone running around cutting up other fellow patients for no good damn reason! The HELL is wrong with you?!"

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

If Falis didn't have a hangover she would have ended the incident right then, but she did and the man's voice made her head feel like it was going to split in two. She put a hand to her temple as the man pawed her. Eventually, she reached up to take the man's wrist, digging her fingertips in painfully between the bones of his wrist to force him to let her go.

"I don't remember doing it," Falis replied in a barely audible voice. "I went down under a pile of zombies while I was trying to get that man and another to safety. I don't remember anything after that until I was on the far side of the park and he was already dead."

She looked away. "I'm sorry."

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

The woman's swift retaliation against Sechs' offending hand sent a sudden spasm of pain shooting up his arm. Instantly his body did a knee jerk reaction and withdrew his grip on her. Uttering out a loud growl of pain, Sechs awkwardly grasped the stung wrist with his braced hand as he shot a nasty leer at her. ARGH! Alright! That DOES it...!

Nearly blinded by his provoked rage, the Replica made a sudden movement to attack the woman. Within that suspended moment, all Sechs wanted was to hurt her and destroy everything else around him. His fury demanded Sechs to slam the blond down and then cut her up with whatever sharp object he could find! He wanted to see if she'd like to be brutally disemboweled just like what she did to Armand! Yeah! Give that bitch a taste of her OWN medicine! He didn't care about the staff or anyone else! He hated seeing petty, cowardly tyrants torment those weaker than them for stupid selfish reasons! HATED IT! It made him SICK! He wanted to KILL her right there--!

Yet none of his attacks materialized. The woman was speaking quietly yet her words came clear to the Replica. The stunned android froze as his timeless moment of outrage instantly dissipated.

"..Wait... What?!" The Replica sputtered, "you were trying to protect Armand?! But... he... you..."

What TK described on the board started to match the woman's words. "Someone went crazy." "...don't remember anything after that..." Immediately Sechs' knowledge of combat styles kicked in. From what Sechs had witnessed and heard so far, he could only guess that this person was some sort of Berserker... She wasn't a fighter in a cyborg Berserker body though (the whole town would have become a smoldering crater if that were the case...), but the carnage she left was still pretty brutal...

Like a lid being released off a pressure cooker, the Replica could feel a good chunk of his aggravation seep out through a guttural sigh. Slumping down on the pew, Sechs appeared considerably less dangerous, but his hateful scowl remained whilst his eyes still held a look of bitter skepticism.

"You... you serious?" Sechs grumbled, "so you're some sort of Berserker then..?"

If this woman truly lost control of herself that night and unintentionally killed Armand, then Sechs would have to consider her actions as an honest mistake... But that still didn't change the fact that Armand was dead... Plus there was the remaining possibility of this woman going berserk and killing another innocent again...

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

"Something like that," Falis replied. She then said something in a language the man would not understand unless he was from the Old World back in the land where the hunter was from. The word did sound like it was meant to be a title, though. "That's the actual name for what I am, but its closest translation in common is berserker, though it is more than what the translation indicates."

She was very glad the man had finally sat down as Falis had noted the vultures that followed her around had moved closer, just in case further physical altercations were to occur. She was mostly happy he'd settled down some because it meant he wasn't shouting at her.

"I'm skilled enough that it rarely takes control of me anymore, but when it does, I am truly a monster." She looked straight ahead, her voice still quite and very reserved for Falis. "I managed to get a couple groups out of that park, but it didn't matter in the end. It eventually took me."

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

Looking back at the gory extent that Armand suffered before his death, it was obvious that this woman was a very skilled warrior. Yet the raw power and speed she attained during such a state just didn't seem possible for a regular human, not unless there were drugs or some other technology involved... Sechs' frown worsened as he pondered over her words. ...Maybe she was a different sort of human... Sechs recalled his encounter with the "magic" user Evangeline and the "other words" and timelines mentioned by others before. Ugh... The more Sechs thought about it, the more his head started to throb... It did nothing to rectify his already awful mood.

"Well good for you! You can control it, sometimes!" Sechs snapped, his anger gradually bubbling up again. Crossing his arms across his chest in a surly manner, Sechs momentarily turned his head to the side to spit at the floor. Once he was back to glaring at the blond woman, his badgering continued on without relent. "That doesn't make up for what happened when you lost it! And what if it happens again?! I think everyone here has enough 'monsters' to deal with as it is!"

Yeah, like those zombies and that horrendous...thing that came out of the mirror during his first night here... Once again Sechs felt homesick for his Fizziroy body. He knew such troubles would no longer concern him if he was back to normal and it wouldn't be the last time he'd wish for his former model...

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

"I never said it did," Falis replied, her eyebrow twitching. "I did my best to warn them when I started going under and felt the initial wave approach. I had hoped they would run, like I told them to, knowing the undead creature were the closest things around me and I would concentrate on them first." It had been a window of opportunity to those two and they didn't take it. Not that she could blame them given how frightening the process of her losing control apparently looked. Or so others had told her.

She sighed and ran a hand over her face. "If it happens again, hopefully I am alone. I've learned to recognize the warning signs so I can tell people to get the fuck away from me. As much as I hate to admit it, I've withdrawn from a couple battles with the marks in this place because I felt it coming if I stayed the fight." She looked over at the man. "If you want a guarantee that it won't happen again, you aren't going to get it, because I can't give you one. Understand this - I don't fucking like losing control."

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

The woman's explanations sounded completely legitimate to Sechs. Normally he would have just let it go and be on his way, but for some reason he still felt lousy inside. He was getting so sick of these stupid feelings that he wanted nothing more than to expel them out of his system by yelling and hitting something.

...But there just wasn't any point to it, and that only made him feel worse! How else could he deal with this crap?! Fighting and destroying stuff almost always made him feel better, but right then he just couldn't get himself to do it... Not with all the staff breathing down his neck...

With a frustrated growl, Sechs rose from his seat and paced for a brief moment. When he couldn't take it any longer, the Replica suddenly turned to plant a furious kick against his previous seat, causing the wooden pew to wobble slightly. Now with a stung foot, the Replica gave out a loud curse and turned away from the woman. "Dammit!" His outrage against the chapel furniture did nothing to relieve the pressure and all he had to show for it was a sore foot and some stern glares from the nurses.

With his back still facing the blond, Sechs visibly struggled to speak amongst his heavy growling. "Argh... Fine! You better not be bullshitting me about this! Armand-- He--" Sechs halted his stuttering before giving his head a vigorous shake. "...He had two friends with him that night, they were upset as hell...! ...You better make sure not to let shit like that happen again!"

However, the denial of any guarantees only fanned the flames to the Replica's aggravation. Sechs spun around to return the woman's gaze with an expression that seethed with contempt. "If I catch ya killing someone because of another one of your berserker tantrums, I promise I will NOT go easy on you! At all!" Sechs warned through gnashing teeth. With a finger pointed at the woman, Sechs added in a quieter but just as vicious tone, "that, I can guarantee, unlike you..."

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

Falis met the man's gaze levelly. Her eyes still reflected how subdued she felt, accepting the man's contempt as she was well aware that she deserved it. A part of her was very numb to all this, having been in this situation before, but it didn't make her hate herself any less. She understood why it existed within her, thanks to Dominikov's explanations, but she still hated that she sometimes needed it to continue to live.

"If you try to kill me, it will be a fatal mistake on your part, but I do understand what you mean," she replied. "Far more than you could possibly know."

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

For a tense moment Sechs said nothing whilst his amber eyes stared back at the woman's own crimson irises. The solemn visage that greeted Sechs told him of possible grief curtained behind her detached stance. Whether or not she truly regretted what occurred the night before, it didn't change the past or make the embittered Replica feel any better.

Finally he tore away his gaze from her with a brusque exhale of air, stirring some hair away from his face. "Hmph! I wouldn't bet on that!" He scoffed with a quick flash of grinding teeth. "At least we're on the same page now."

And with that the disgruntled clone turned and shuffled off with a slouch that appeared more defeated than predatory. His frustrated grumbles sounded incoherent but vulgar nonetheless.